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This is an interesting story that I came across today whilst reading the news on ‘Sky Text’ and immediately looked for further information, the article can be found via the link below:

http://news.sky.com/story/959465/technology-gives-boost-to-childrens-reading
In the article, ‘The Reading Agency’ whose mission is to “inspire more people to read more” claims that “The ages-old problem of getting children to pick up a book is being helped by the increase in electronic devices.”
According to the survey one in four (26%) said they have bought their children electronic reading aids, such as Kindles, Sony Readers and iPads

A further 16% of parents say that they have either paid for, or let their youngsters use their e-readers and tablet computers.

These findings are interesting and I believe that they represent an evolution in the way people consume written media.

The digital generation mentioned in a previous blog (see here), expect easy access to information due to them been immersed in digital technology since birth, and now through the availability of theses mobile reading technologies, it is my belief that this current generation of reader, are going to grow up frequently reading written texts such as books, newspapers, comics and magazines digitally.

In a different press release regarding the Launch of a ‘Digital Skills Sharing Programme’ featured on The Reading Agency’s website, Miranda McKearney, Director of The Reading Agency says:

“Libraries and publishers are living through a period of change which can be exhilarating or terrifying. The people involved in this programme are those who relish the challenge of the change, and are determined to harness the power of the digital explosion to reach new reading audiences.”

We are in a period of change that is for sure but is it a change for the better? That is a question that causes great debate, in the above quote McKearney acknowledges that digital technology is a tool, that if harnessed properly can help take reading out to new audiences and this is positive.
In a previous blog (see here), I wrote about Author Johnathen Franzen, who claims that e-books are damaging society and serious readers but according to an article in the guardian newspaper Franzen is wrong, the article explains that in today’s busy world the book as a medium, has to compete with a wide range of other mediums i.e. television, internet, radio etc…

“So, the truth is that serious books such as Franzen’s FreedomorThe Correctionshave to compete for our time, whether in print or on a screen. But if a book is good, it will earn the effort and reflection that no doubt Franzen’s books deserve.”

The idea that paper is for serious readers, is a romanticised notion that does not make any sense in the 21st century. In my other career as a nightclub DJ, I often have people remarking to me that it is not the same now that DJ’s don’t use vinyl but my reply to that is if you are dancing in nightclub you are more often than not reacting to music and the atmosphere created by the DJ, without any knowledge of the medium that the DJ is using and for books I believe the same principle is true, if you are reading a book that is sufficiently interesting and written in an engaging way, the medium from which you are reading almost becomes irrelevant.

I am a self confessed advocate of digital technology but that does not mean I think it should replace traditional mediums such books and access to books through libraries (McKearney suggests that this time of change can be exhilarating or terrifying for libraries). Jonathan Nowell, President of Nielsen Book says:

I believe that the main thing we need to remember here, is that it is important for people to be able to read and any medium that supports this should hailed as useful, how, what, and where we read may change but it does not matter, as long as we read.

Although I have more or less finished my practice in context essay, today we had a session in which we informally presented our current progress and feelings about this module so far. I wish I could say it was a pleasant experience but it was not, I sensed a lot of negativity with my choice of approach and subject matter, and to be honest this is not the first time during this course. I simply do not fit in, if it’s not the difference in approach towards looking at and evaluating art and design, it’s the technical nature of my practice and lack of comparable 18th century painters or sculptors from which I obviously don’t draw comparisons.

This may becoming a bit of a rant but this feeling of struggling to fit in with the status quo of art school academia is very frustrating and I feel as though the heavily art biased approach of this course can very off putting. I am trying immensely hard to fit in but this is becoming more of a struggle. I do not blame the staff on my course for the way I am feeling because it is definitely not their fault; I am a victim of my own circumstance. I am the least art influenced student in my group and the traditional art perspectives applicable to the other students are not always applicable to me or my practice but this may not be the main problem.

In my essay I discuss the misunderstanding surrounding my practice in a professional context and maybe there is a lack of understanding of my practice in art school academia, in the same way that there is a lack of understanding of my practice in the wider world.

My essay points out that my practice crosses boundaries between sectors and thus this causes confusion and not only misunderstanding but also misidentification. In the same way that my practice does not fit neatly into a traditional bracket of employment, it does not seem to fit into a traditional bracket of academia.

This lack of understanding is something that can be very frustrating from my perspective but I wouldn’t be surprised if there is a level of frustration being experienced by my lecturers, in trying to deliver relevant notions and ideas to me and also an annoyance levelled at me for being constantly perturbed.

I think there may be a deeper lying problem here and it is not an ‘art vs. design’ problem as I have written in the past. I believe that the problem is the application of traditional art school educational principles, to a non traditional subject matter.

Art school teaching often looks to the past, for influences that pertain meaning in relation to current works, for example a female student photographer may draw comparisons or contrasts between her own work and the work of ‘Annie Liebovitz’ by comparing style, technique, technology and influences of a social, temporal, psychological and philosophical nature. The sources from which the student may find relevant information may include books, journals and interviews, all of which are recognised academic sources of information and the lines of enquiry are all traditional art school academic investigations.

In my practice there are lots of relevant lines of exploration, including most of the traditional investigative paths but there also seems to be a lot that don’t seem academically acceptable.

In my practice I cannot look back at famous pioneers in the same way, due to the fact that we are in the thick of the pioneering process right now. My practice is not traditional its new, it is current and that is fact. You may be reading my thoughts right now on my blog; I read the thoughts of my fellow interactive designers on their blogs or on their twitter feeds but these are not academically acceptable. This makes one of the largest elements of my practice unavailable as a resource, but been part of a ground breaking profession as its breaking new ground, means we do not have the luxury of looking back with the same romanticised notions as artists or more traditional design practices.

My practice is based around the practical needs of users in today’s world and it seems as though the equation is Practical = Devaluation.

Professor Donald A Norman describes a situation in design that I believe creeps into art school academia, he says “Prizes tend to be given for some aspects of design, to the neglect of all others-usually including usability” (Norman, 1988: p151-152), in other wordsthe practical aspects are not appreciated as much as the visual aspects. Folkmann also highlights this issue “when design artefacts are noticed and appreciated, it is more often for their aesthetic qualities than their practical or functional ability to solve more or less complex or well-defined problems.” (Folkmann, 2010). It is my belief that the situation described by Norman and Folkmann, mirrors the situation in art school academia, I believe there can sometimes be an under valuation of the technical or practical design subjects, in comparison to their art or traditional counterparts.

This may be because of an understandable lack of understanding of the complex nature of the new experimental subjects and the theories and relevant literature available to the students of these subjects. There are many books written about art that look back on pieces with a romanticised notion, that often contradicts the initial reaction to the work and this could possibly be what may happen to the writings of the new media practitioners of my generation, our practice is still evolving whilst also been extremely culturally relevant right now.

I am a victim of my own circumstance in the respect that I am a new media student and practitioner, a practice that is probably the most untraditional and furthest removed from all others within an art and design school environment. A practice that is too new to write academic writings based upon the exploits of relevant pioneers and innovators, not because the pioneers don’t exist but because the majority of them are still pioneering and sharing their exploits in non academically suitable mediums such as blogs and twitter.

These pioneers do not purposely circumvent the traditional academic process (well some might), they simply uses the methods of their practice, is it hard to believe that new media practitioners may show their work and thoughts on new media platforms?

But here is the problem, academia has a set of rules regarding trusted sources, these are set in place to try and preserve the integrity of academic work and due to the misguided attempts of some new media platforms at providing information, new media generally is not a great resource for academic material. In time, more academically appropriate, new media related information will become available but often as is the nature of new media practice, the pace of practical evolution often outdoes the pace of new media related academic enquiries.

At the moment, I do not have a solution to offer that may solve frustrations and I believe there may never be an answer but what I do know is that at the moment, as a new media student in an art school environment, I feel a bit like the proverbial elephant in the room that nobody wishes to discuss. I am not trying to cause problems and I am not a maverick looking to upset the establishment, I just feel that there is a problem here worthy of further debate and discussion, and hopefully my view via the benefits of new media production, may be noticed by those with the power to look further and deeper into this quandary, to hopefully benefit the new media students of the future.

Author Jonathan Franzen has defended the printed book, warning that e-books are damaging for society. Franzen believes consumers are being coerced into believing that they need the latest technological innovations and he believes that traditional paper is the best technology for books, he says “the technology I like is the American paperback edition of Freedom. I can spill water on it and it would still work! So it’s pretty good technology. ”

Franzen also explains that printed books are permanent and there may be issues with the lifespan of today’s technological products, he also implies that those who read digitally are not serious readers, by saying “I think, for serious readers, a sense of permanence has always been part of the experience. Everything else in your life is fluid, but here is this text that doesn’t change.” I do not agree with Franken’s views and I would not claim that either medium is better or worse, they both have their distinct qualities. What I do think is interesting, is that Franzen’s books are available to buy on digital devices, so his worries are obviously not effecting his desire to earn money. The question I am left with is, if you are a reader who is reading a Jonathan Franzen novel on a digital reading device, you obviously according to Franzen are not a serious reader, so what does this imply about the quality of his work?

As part of my essay, I am discussing the current demand for interactive media in the educational and heritage sectors. I think the ‘iSchool initiative’ that I blogged about previously (see here), may be a good example of this demand.

Today I also found a great article By Namir Anani entitled ‘Sustainable engagement in digital heritage– The challenges of learning environments for heritage institutions’.

This Article focuses on the fact that the heritage industry faces the same demands from today’s digital society as other businesses and an evolution of the heritage industry through the use of interactive media is needed to maintain its duty of delivering information to society.

Today’s findings are of great potential, I have found a journal article called ‘Interaction Is Good Business’ by Michelle Manafy. Within the article Manafy explains that businesses need to change, to meet the needs of the digital generation because there is not only a demand but an expectation for the use of interactive products in today’s world.

This is not only good for my essay but good for my prospects in the future, as a designer of interactive digital products for which there is a demand.

These works have been brought together by Professor David Hesmondhalgh

Head of Institute; Director of Media Industries Research Centre from the University of Leeds and Dr Jason Toynbee Senior Lecturer in Media Studies from the The Open University.

Chapters 8 and 9 have been the most relevant to me, I have not yet identified anything that I will definitely use, but here is a brief overview of my thoughts on these chapters anyway.

Chapter 8 – Rethinking the Digital Age by Faye Ginsburg

Faye Ginsburg is the founding Director of the Centre for Media, Culture and History at New York University. To begin this chapter Ginsburg draws attention to an event in March 2005, when the United Nations launched the ‘Digital Solidarity Fund’, this was a programme designed to ease the digital divide by initiating projects to provide more equal access to information and communication technologies worldwide.

Ginsburg looks at the possible ramifications of introducing these technologies to indigenous cultures. This is an interesting arc on which I could take my essay, looking at whether the freedom to have access to the information society would enhance or destabilise indigenous cultures, and I could examine how access to this information has affected the rest of the world who already have access. This is an interesting subject but it does not feel directly relevant to my practice in context right now? I am not sure if I will use any of the information from this chapter in my essay but I wouldn’t be surprised if it pops up later on in my project, on my blog.

Chapter 9 – Media and mobility in a transnational world by Purnima Mankekar

Purnima Mankekar is an author and teacher of Women’s and Asian American Studies at the University of California.

In this chapter Mankekar explores the relationship between media, mobility and transnationality. Mankekar explains how the ability to travel far and wide across our world with relative ease, has created a globalised culture, and how individual cultural identities have been affected. This chapter goes on to look at the possible effects of mobile media as a threat to cultural identity and as an instigator of social change. This could also be an interesting avenue of investigation but very much like the previous chapter, I do not feel the immediate relevance of this to my current practice context.

This book was very interesting but the extent to which it may inform my essay is yet to be decided.

The iSchool Initiative is the conceptual brain child of Travis Allen, he formed the notion of the iSchool Initiative in 2009, after he was stopped whilst attempting to use an iPhone in class as la earning tool. Allen felt frustrated with these limitations, so he formed a concept based upon mobile learning and established the iSchool Initiative. With the help of the Students in Free Enterprise (SIFE) organisation Allen expanded his idea into a fully functioning, non-profit, student-led organisation that is dedicated to revolutionizing our education system through innovative technology. Their mission is:

“to inspire and educate students on how to become life-long digital learners in the information age. We accomplish this by raising awareness for the technological needs of the classroom, providing collaborative research on the use of technology in the classroom, and guiding schools in the implementation of this technology.” http://blog.ischoolinitiative.com/

I like this idea and Travis Allen deserves credit for the way in which he is attempting to draw attention to the feelings and requirements of today’s generation of digital orientated learners. I do have one slight concern though, with the name “The iSchool Initiative” and the constant references to products made by that particular company with a fruity name and logo, the initiative is could be accused of pandering to or been too closely affiliated with that one particular development company.

There is a worldwide business battle going on between the different mobile technology development companies, and I believe educational initiatives should not be seen to be favouring one or the other, there are many digital device platforms that could be used by education to facilitate a more effective learning experience for today’s generation, so the message should really be please can we try and incorporate educationally effective technologies regardless of platform into our education system. To see more about the iSchool Initiative, see the links bellow: